What works
On Saturday John Tierney (author of what I consider the quintessential debunking article, "Recycling is Garbage") had a column in the NY Times about the Acadian Ambulance company, which was unusually well prepared to respond to the aftermath of Katrina. Owned by a tehcnology buff, Acadian had generators, sat phones, ambulances, helicopters--and clear heads. Tierney said of the company, "It was a lonely island of competence." Then he wrote:
As stranded patients wondered what had happened to the city's medics and ambulances, Acadian medics filled in at the Superdome and evacuated thousands from six hospitals.
While Louisiana officials debated how to accept outside help, Acadian was directing rescues by helicopters from the military and other states. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency's paperwork slowed the evacuation of patients from the airport, Acadian's frustrated medics waited with empty helicopters.
The company sent in outside doctors and nurses to the airport, where patients were dying and medical care was in short supply. FEMA rejected the help because the doctors and nurses weren't certified members of a National Disaster Medical Team.
Bureaucrats from FEMA on down not only failed to respond to the emergency, but frustrated private citizens' attempts to respond. I guess the notion of a bureaucratic emergency response really is an oxymoron. Private enterprise and enterprising private citizens have done a much better job responding to disaster than their official counterparts. Another excellent example is Dr. Goodheart. This cardiologist from California cashed in his skymiles to get to the Gulf, where he has been helping, and blogging. It's a ground's-eye view of what is and isn't happening in the relief effort, and again points up how absolutely critical individual action and initiative is to relief work. Who else is going to do it, Big Brother?
If you really want to help with disaster relief, you can visit Acadian Ambulance's website, where you can make a contribution directly to them via the Community Foundation of Acadiana. Consider your donation a vote for private enterprise.
Similar thing went on in the big San Diego fires a couple of years ago. The Navy offered several of its choppers to dump retardant, but the state authorities refused the help saying the Navy pilots weren't certified. To be fair, their hands were tied by state law. We are choking our lives with more and more laws. Well intended laws, but flawed.
Posted by: allan | October 15, 2005 at 10:02 AM